What do Chardonnay and truck tires have in common? They are two of the many ways corporate partners are making a difference in Yellowstone...

Supporting Yellowstone One Bottle at a Time

Next time you’re at a restaurant in Yellowstone National Park, enjoy a bottle of Fetzer wine along with the knowledge you are helping Yellowstone and supporting environmental sustainability.

The Yellowstone Park Foundation, with the help of Yellowstone concessioners Xanterra Parks & Resorts and Delaware North Companies, has partnered with Fetzer Vineyards to benefit the Park. For each bottle of Fetzer wine -- or wine from sister-vineyard Bonterra -- purchased at a Yellowstone restaurant or store, Fetzer will donate $1 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation.

Fetzer Vineyards adopted sustainable operations practices nearly two decades ago, and has been a leader in growing organic grapes. Fetzer and Bonterra Vineyards use solar energy, have dramatically reduced water and glass usage, and employ composting and recycling procedures that allow them to be zero-waste facilities. In fact, in 2007 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Fetzer a “Best-of-the-Best” Ozone Protection Award.

Yellowstone has more than 460 miles of roads to maintain and more than three million visitors to welcome each year. Michelin is helping the Park achieve its goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the year 2016 by providing its green, energy-saving tires for the Park's fleet.

Since Michelin made their first donation of truck tires for Yellowstone, the Park’s fleet managers have reported fuel savings on the first seven vehicles of as much as 20 percent compared to the previous tires. This translates into emissions savings of more than four tons of carbon dioxide each year, per truck!

Since then, Michelin has provided green, fuel-saving tires to a wide variety of vehicles in the Park, including dump trucks, front-end loaders and other service vehicles. Often unseen by visitors, these work vehicles are essential to maintaining the Park for visitors and staff. Check out on YouTube how these work vehicles are using Michelin tires in Yellowstone.

Assuring that the fleet is fuel-efficient saves money and significantly reduces carbon emissions, plus the Michelin tires are lasting twice as long as the previous tires, further reducing environmental impact.

Kohler Donation Generates Greener Power

Yellowstone’s historic Lamar Buffalo Ranch has become an important home base for hundreds of youth participants in Expedition: Yellowstone! each spring and fall, and for students of the Yellowstone Institute each summer. It is also becoming a showcase for promoting environmental stewardship, and through the YES! Initiative, the Yellowstone Park Foundation is working to help further increase energy efficiency and decrease water use. Currently, around 70% of all electricity used at the Ranch is produced by the sun, but the remaining 30% comes from an inefficient propane generator.

We are pleased to announce that Kohler has recently unveiled a new, technologically advanced propane generator, the XP 100, and has donated one for the Buffalo Ranch. It has the ability to operate in the Park’s severe winters – rated to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit – and with substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over traditional generators. Yellowstone will be the first location west of the Mississippi to use this new generator.

The Yellowstone Park Foundation, a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization, works in cooperation with the National Park Service to fund projects and programs that protect, preserve, and enhance the natural and cultural resources and the visitor experience of Yellowstone National Park.